Vehicle Owner

Member ID: XTRKestrel

Location: Loves Park, IL

Vehicle Info

2000 Oldsmobile Alero

Bragging Rights

  • 1/4 Mile15.08 sec @ 89 mph
  • 0-606.7sec
  • Top Speed140mph
  • HP220
  • Weight3300lbs

Major Upgrades

  • turbo
  • nitrous
  • bore increase
  • port and polish
  • supercharger
  • extrude honed
  • stroke increase
  • engine swap

Ratings

    • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.

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Last updated: Aug 23, 2009

Hits: 10,451

Matt’s Oldsmobile Alero

  • Currently 3.4461538461538 /5 Stars.
29 guestbook comments

What my wife (not-at-all affectionally) refers to as The Money Pit:

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero  

Yep, it's an Olds...

I need to confess that have a sickness....I keep changing spring and damper combinations (long story follows).
It started with custom-built double-adjustable Koni Yellows with H&R Sport springs, which were then converted to coilovers with Eibach ERS 2.50" race springs (300#F, 200#R). They were horrendously stiff on the street and way overkill for a daily driver, but were glorious on the track.
Then I went to Intrax springs with KYB GR-2 struts, which I didn't care for. Then, I had another set of Koni Yellows fabbed up and paired them with Eibach Pro-Kit springs. For about 2 years thereafter, I was using a set of ACDelco RPO FE3 "Sport" struts which were a bit more forgiving for daily driver duty. The latest iteration (since I acquired a Civic for DD - gotta love 41MPG!) is a set of KYB AGX dampers with H&R Sport springs. Like I said - a sickness.
I've gone back-and-forth between various combinations of GM and aftermarket anti-roll bars more than I care to admit. Until recently, I was using a 24mm solid GM FE3-spec front bar, with a solid 22mm rear bar from Speedbuilt Competition Components. And now:

 

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

A 28mm solid Speedbuilt front bar is now installed, along with a set of aluminum front lower control arms, fortified with poly bushings. Strut tower bars from MRZ Performance up front (a very nice billet aluminum piece) and SLP in back are de rigueur. Rounding out the suspension mods, I have installed a set of Energy Suspension polyurethane end-link bushings for the front anti-roll bar, with custom-machined billet aluminum spacers. (WHEW!)
The brakes are Baer's Track+ system, using 13x1.1" 2-piece rotors, twin piston calipers (you'll find a very similar system on the last generation Mustang Cobra), with Hawk Ceramic pads in front and HPS pads out back. Just for the heck of it, it looks like Baer's new 6-piston (6P) calipers will fit behind my wheels, so we may see those when development is completed. :)
ATE TYP200 brake fluid flows through braided stainless steel lines to each aluminum caliper.

The mill (old picture)....

 

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

 

Okay, so it's been an adventure building a new motor for this thing. After 8 years and nearly 120,000 miles, I did not feel comfortable with just throwing a cam in the motor and calling it a day. No, I had to go a bit overboard. So, I bought a slightly used '99 3400 longblock, and sent it to Mark at MP Racing. He tore it down completely and then sent it to LAM Engines in Kenosha, WI. LAM hot-tanked and magnafluxed the block, and bored the cylinders .040" over to fit new Sealed Power hyperutectic pistons. They also balanced the rotating assembly, installed new freeze plugs, and whatever else they deemed necessary. Mark got the block back and painted it a nice glossy black before assembling the short block. The rods were treated to ARP bolts to help everything survive at up to 7000RPM. A heavier-duty timing set from a pre-99 GM V6 was used with a nod towards the higher-lift, longer duration cam (.517/.538, 216/224 degrees @ .050") and stiffer Comp Cams 26986 valve springs. Speaking of the heads, they have now gone through several iterations. They started as a set of '05 3400 heads with maybe 100 miles on them. Ben at Wide Open Throttle Technologies disassembled and cleaned them before a labor-intensive porting, polishing, and flow-matching job whch also saw the combustion chambers reshaped for better low-to-mid lift flow. He shaved about .020" off to bump up compression a few tenths. In addition to the aforementioned Comp Came springs, we fitted Comp steel retainers and locks, and specially-modified SI stainless valves. Due to several issues which crept up later in the build, the SI valves and Comp valve locks were replaced with lighter, better flowing valves and valve locks from a set of GM 3500 (LX9) cylinder heads. Keeping in tune with a light valvetrain, we also replaced the steel Comp Came retainers with titanium retainers of the same make. With all these new parts (some generously donated by Ben @ WOT-Tech), we figured it would be a good idea to have LAM Engines blueprint the heads, so that was done. Topping it off are a set of ported intake manifolds from Ben @ WOT-Tech, a 65mm billet throttle body from TCE Motorsports, and a ceramic-coated fenderwell intake from MP Racing. On the exhaust side, I have a set of S&S headers which were ceramic-coated by Bonehead Performance. I do stay legal with a Metal 'Cat catalytic converter,and the rest of the exhaust is 2.5" mandrel bent piping from SLP Performance, with a Magnaflow resonator and transverse-style muffler.

Caught your breath yet? 'Cause the transmission didn't miss out on all the fun either. It has a set of Raybestos Blue Plate Special frictions and new steels, billet accumulator pistons from Superior Transmission, and a final-drive swap to 3.42:1. Now it's time to break the motor in and then the fun of tuning starts......

Here's a short video:

 <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i628.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid628.photobucket.com/albums/uu5/lvemy3100/DCFC0086.flv">

Next is a shot of the wheel/tire/brake setup - it's slightly outdated from a rubber perspective, as I am currently rolling on Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R tires. They are still wrapped around 17x7.5" custom-drilled Kosei K-1 Racing light alloy wheels, and brought to a halt by Baer Racing Track+ front brakes.

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

 

Maybe an upgrade to these in the future?

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

So, it turns out I'm a slave to fashion as well. I kept it subtle with a Razzi ground effects kit and rear decklid wing. This photo was taken at the Oldsmobile Homecoming June 2006.

 

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

One unique change is a set of Euro-spec headlamp modules that came from the factory sans the ugly amber reflector (just to be different). To the uniformed they're hard to spot, but I have yet to see another Stateside Alero with them.

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

Not one to leave well enough alone, they have been retrofitted with 4300K H7 HID lights for the low beams. Natch, the factory projector foglamps didn't escape the HID treatment either, receiving a 3000K 880 retrofit.

New for fall 2007! Recaro Speed seats for driver and front passenger.

 

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

The end.

 

 

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

Be sure to check out a few photographs from the racetrack on Page 2.
Thanks for looking.

Guestbook

Displaying entries 1-5 of 29

joker69alero  

Posted by: joker69alero

07/27/2009 06:24PM

wow nice bro check mine out 5 stars

will8is9hot  

Posted by: will8is9hot

05/05/2009 08:11AM

Incredible car. I sent you a PM. Please get back to me.

FastGirl785  

Posted by: FastGirl785

04/29/2009 02:43PM

5*'s lookin clean

olds68  

Posted by: olds68

02/07/2009 07:55AM

5 stars and to my fav list. Olds Nat fo r2009 in PA, in Mass for 2010. Back in 1999 or 2000 Oldsmobile built tuner hot-rods for most of their line-up. The Aurora and Aelos protypes were super hot! darn shmae Olds did not bring their hot-rods to market. It was 50/50 deal(almost to John Q Public), but then Gm pulled the plug on Olds.

derekbuckner1  

Posted by: derekbuckner1

01/18/2009 11:07AM

where'd you u get your strut bar?

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Vehicle Owner

Member ID: XTRKestrel

Location: Loves Park, IL